


nothing going-going wild in you

by nosecoffee



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Fae AU, M/M, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2016-10-04
Packaged: 2018-08-19 12:04:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8206630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nosecoffee/pseuds/nosecoffee
Summary: Alex grew up with the tales of people stupid enough to go looking for the fair folk in the dense wood that got taller and thicker the deeper you went. Alex grew up with his mother's fear, with the constant haggle of trying to sell their house at the edge of the village, trying to sell the house that no one wanted. AU where the forest gets deeper and larger the deeper in you go, like the ocean





	

**Author's Note:**

> I've really gotten into these fantasy au's, oops.
> 
> Title from 'Don't Do Sadness', from Spring Awakening

Men who walked into the forest didn't come out. Women who stumbled about the apple trees that lined the edge of the forest, looking for firewood in the cold months disappeared. People who ran to the wood to hide from something never returned.

Alex grew up with the tales of people stupid enough to go looking for the fair folk in the dense wood that got taller and thicker the deeper you went. Alex grew up with his mother's fear, with the constant haggle of trying to sell their house at the edge of the village, trying to sell the house that no one wanted.

Their house was the closest to the wood. On the outskirts of their small village. Their house was small and crumbling with a flaking picket fence that was once white.

His mother didn't let him play outside the fence. His mother didn't let him out after dark. His mother locked his window at night, telling him to be silent if something crept to the window.

His mother had become paranoid with the stories.

His mother had become one of the stories.

When she was giving birth to Alex, the winter was so cold that it blew the fire out of the chimney, leaving the family in darkness and in frost.

Alex's father knew the only thing he could do was to go to the forest for firewood. His mother begged him not to, but he left nonetheless.

He didn't return, but there was wood on the doorstep when one of the windows shattered and snow piled on the floor.

James was four.

Alex knew that his father had become yet another missing persons case that no one wanted to solve. They'd neglected it for eighteen years.

James had grown up with the stories as well, except he was the one who'd watched their father disappear into the woods that night, a rusty lantern and an axe in his hands.

James had always been curious after that, climbing over the fence to play in the field of wildflowers, unlocking his window after their mother was asleep, peering out at the stars.

James was the curious one.

He was always caught, but that didn't stop him.

Didn't stop him when he started having the dreams, when he started seeing a beautiful woman out the window in the dead of night, gesturing for him to join her at the edge of the forest.

Alex was eight when he walked into his brother's room and found him sketching out her face on a piece of notebook paper.

"Who is she?" He'd asked his brother, peering over his arm.

"She's a Faerie Queen, and she wants me to join her court." James answered, completing one of her piercing eyes.

Alex had stared in awe.

James had let him keep the drawing, saying that maybe he'd see her one day.

And then James ran away to finally join the Faerie Queen's court. He left in the night, and never came back.

Alex's mother was distraught, crying in their kitchen, hair wild and eyes bloodshot.

"I wasn't careful enough!" She cried. "I shouldn't have let him out of my sight!"

Alex had tried to console her, but what could he do? Two members of their family had left for that wood and never come back.

His mother had a reason to fear it.

She took to standing out in the cold, on the edge of the apple trees, screaming his name, hoping he'd come galloping out of the woods, one hand clutching some wildflowers and the other their father's hand.

But he didn't. James was lost, and Alex's mother spent so much time in the cold winds, that she became weak with sickness.

She couldn't leave her bed, and Alex had to go and get a doctor.

The doctor who came to call for his mother was the father of a boy his age, and he brought his son along to keep Alex company when he came to see his mother.

Aaron was going to be a doctor, like his father, he told Alex, and Alex told him he was going to be a writer.

The doctor said that his mother would recover, that she needed rest and good food.

The doctor said he'd come round every few days to check in.

The doctor said they should hire a housekeeper to cook and clean. His mother said they didn't have the money for it.

Aaron's father volunteered his wife for the cause.

Aaron's mother brought Aaron around to play with Alex while she cared for his mother. She asked him to call her Esther.

Esther was nice. She looked after his mother, getting her to sit up and drink broth, doing her hair, singing in the kitchen as she made them dinner.

For a while, it looked like maybe Alex's mother was getting better, that her sickness was waning and maybe her mourning period had ended. It had been almost a year since James had run away to join the Fair Folk.

But then one day his mother wouldn't wake, and her chest didn't rise and fall with breath and Alex didn't know where she'd gone.

Alex didn't leave her side and when Esther arrived for the day he didn't know what to say to her to explain.

His mother’s body explained enough apparently, as she left Aaron with Alex and said she'd return.

She did, with her husband, and he proclaimed her dead at the scene.

Alex was officially an orphan, and he didn't know how to feel about it.

The Burr's helped with the funeral, and honoured his request that she be buried as far from the woods as possible.

Esther made Alex live with them for a few years, and Alex met Aaron's older sister, Sally. Esther taught him how to cook, and one day he requested that he live in his family's house again.

Esther agreed, but made the agreement that Aaron would come over and study every night with him, and then Alex would walk him home.

Aaron was a very attentive study-buddy, and Alex found himself getting to know Aaron better than before, never mind the fact that they'd grown up together.

He'd laugh and give Alex pop-quizzes while helping Alex with dinner. He'd sit across the table and let Alex show him his flash cards. He'd look over Alex's essays and cross out things when they went too overboard.

It took Alex a long time to realise that he was in love with Aaron.

He was walking him home one night and Aaron was talking about some horticulture test he'd aced when Alex stopped dead in his tracks, eyes wide in realisation.

"Alex?" Aaron lifted his chin, trying to catch Alex's eyes. "What's wrong?"

And Alex gave him the biggest smile he could muster, proclaiming, "I'm in love with you."

Aaron stood still for a second, frozen slightly. And then he laughed, taking Alex's hand gently and letting his leather satchel thump to the ground. "Took you long enough."

He kissed Alex on the cheek and picked his bag back up before yanking Alex up the road to his house.

It was different after that, the cram-sessions more domestic, sitting on the kitchen counter while a stew was cooking and laughing about something that had happened earlier felt a little more private.

Alex found himself in Aaron's arms more and more, reading books for school, falling asleep in the sun curled up against him. He relished kissing him, stealing them when he had the time - and sometimes when he didn't - and felt the feeling of loving somebody overtake him.

Aaron was everything he needed, and a little more.

Alex wrote him horrible poetry that Aaron loved, and Aaron let Alex take short-cuts on their walks home (his so called short-cuts through the park and by the school made the walk longer).

They were eighteen, sitting in Alex's dining room with the remainders of dinner and their studies covering the table. It was coming up to finals, and if Alex had any hope in graduating, he was pulling an all-nighter.

Aaron had been granted the night over as it was a cram session. Alex wasn't sure what he was expecting, but stressing about exams was kind of more important at that moment.

"Shit!" He cursed, spilling his water on his book. It soaked through the pages and the ink ran and he cursed again.

"Alex, shit," Aaron pulled all his notes away from the table and helped Alex clear the mess up. The book was ruined, and so were half his notes.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Alex cried, pulling at his hair.

"It's okay," Aaron assured him, taking one of his hands and pulling it out of his hair. He sat Alex down. "It's okay, we'll fix this."

"We can't! I don't know where to find another copy of that book!" Alex broke off. “Wait.”

James had it. On his bookshelf, in his room.

Alex got up from the table, walking to the room and shoving open the door with his shoulder.

"Alex?" Aaron followed him in, watching him closely as he scanned the dusty bookshelves.

"James owned that book." Alex replied in answer.

"That book on Greek myths?"

"Yes."

The light from the fire in the living room hit the window on the opposite wall, and lit the room somewhat.

There it was, sitting beside a Shakespeare. Alex pulled the book out and a folded piece of notebook paper fluttered to the ground.

Alex bent to pick it up, balancing the book on his thigh as he carefully opened the paper.

It was the sketch James had done of the Faerie Queen. She had been beautiful when he was younger, when he still had a mother and a brother, but now she was cold and calculating and reeked of evil.

Alex folded it carefully back up though. James' genius wouldn't be lost because Alex was vengeful. He was an amazing artist, and Alex had little proof to show it already.

Alex exited the room, and placed the book on the now-dry table.

"Alex?" Aaron's voice was soft and gentle, as though he was trying not to scare away an easily-startled beast. "Alex, maybe we should stop for the night. Maybe we should go to bed."

"Yeah," Alex murmured, looking at the faded white of the paper. "Maybe..."

He looked out the window at the dark woods. The woods his mother had warned him about. They were dangerous. Perilous. They ripped families apart.

Their lure was impressive. He was tempted to enter the forest. He was tempted to go into the woods and see why no one came back.

"Alex?"

"Aaron."

"What are you thinking?"

"I was thinking..." He looked down at Aaron, worry clear in his eyes. "I was thinking about the woods."

Immediately, he watched Aaron recoil. "No."

"Yes," Alex replied. He stood, fingertips brushing the paper. "Look, I've been scared of them my whole life. My mother was afraid of them, my brother was afraid of them, this whole village is afraid of them. But I've never seen them for myself, never gone near them because old wives tales told me that I was safer where I was. Red Riding Hood, and Goldilocks, and my father."

Aaron stood too, looking conflicted. "And what's to say that you're any different than any other person who's gone in before? What do you have that they don't?"

"That doesn't matter-"

"Yes it does! Those wives tales are so popular, because they warn you that there is danger in things that are unknown! If you go in there, I have no doubt that you will just be another missing persons case that they refuse to open because you got lost in the woods!"

"But what if I am different from them? What if my future’s in there?" Alex argued.

"It's not," Aaron said, his fist clenching in frustration.

"You don't know that!" Alex tugged at his hair. "I grew up right next to it, I lost my entire family to it. I can feel a connection to it, something telling me that it's my future."

"You're right," Aaron slammed his fist into the table. "I don't know that you belong here. But I know that if you stay here, you'll be with me, and we'll have a future together, no matter how boring or mundane. We are no different than any other person in this village. There's no need to pretend."

"I'm not pretending! I don't belong here, you don't belong here!" Alex turned to him, looking at the boy he'd grown up with, spent the last ten years with, fallen in love with.

"Aaron..."

"Don't." Aaron sounded like he was about to cry. "Don't say it. If you say it it will be real, and I won't have a choice but to follow you."

Alex walked forward, tentatively, gently placing a hand on Aaron's.

"Aaron." He whispered. He looked up and exhaled unevenly. "Aaron, run away with me."

"What about the stories?"

"The stories might not be true."

"But what if they are? You can't know for sure that it isn't dangerous there, you can't know for sure that there aren't creatures beyond our knowledge in there."

"You're right, I don't." He placed his chin on the top of Aaron's head, looking at the wall above the kitchen counter. "But I'm willing to find out with you by my side."

Aaron sighed shakily and Alex pulled away. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but okay. Okay. Let's run away."

"I love you, you know."

"I know, and I love you too."

The next day, they left as the sun began its ascent across the sky, walking through the field of wildflowers and through the line of apple trees, watching the trees get bigger the deeper they went.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment and a kudos, and come stalk me on Tumblr @nose-coffee. I really hope you enjoyed this. Thanks.


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